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Dear Arthur,

I have a question that I wanted to ask a strong Christian because it is really eating me up inside. If you noticed, my friend did not come to church for a few weeks. He said it was boring, but I kept on asking him to come again and again. He came back now, but he's still unstable. Well, my real problem is is that he "challenged" me by saying that he will go to church with me only if I go to a Buddhist Temple or a Muslim Mosque with him. He's not a Buddhist or a Muslim, but he just said that to try to provoke me or something. I told him no, and he said, "shouldn't you be tolerant of other religions?" Should I go with him to a Buddhist Temple or a Muslim Mosque to have him go to Church with me? Help.

I have this feeling that my friend feels that it is okay to make fun of Christians because he believes we can't do anything to him. It really frustrates me because every time I do something that goes against his will, he will say something like, that doesn't seem too Christian-like, or wouldn't your God be angry at you? It's really annoying. I think he thinks Christians are weak and our God prevents us from ever doing anything bad to him. Help.

Thank you for reading my problem.

Hello,

It was sure great to hear from you. Thanks for sharing that with us. It is so wonderful that you have been bringing your friends to church.

It does sound like your friend is trying to get under your skin to provoke and challenge you. That's alright. It's par for the course. He's probably just testing you to see how you'll respond. It also probably is God allowing you to be refined and tested for your own future benefit. We're in a spiritual battle and God wants tough and battle-tested soldiers. He may just be training you for that. So, keep up the good fight and represent the Lord well at all times.

His comment about, "Shouldn't you be tolerant of all religions?" has nothing to do with whether you should go with him or not to a temple or mosque. Those are two different issues. However, to answer his question, the answer is both yes and no.

Yes, we should be tolerant of other religions in the sense that we should be tolerant of other PEOPLE and respect their right to live on this earth. We should love them, engage them, serve them, ... and share Christ with them. On the other hand, we need not accept their BELIEF as true and be tolerant of their beliefs in the sense of giving them equal validity and value. We "tolerate" their right to believe differently than we do, but that doesn't mean their beliefs are equally valid. They're not. Nonetheless, we are to love them in Jesus' name. The last I checked, that's not true with the Islamic faith.

In his challenging you to go to a Buddhist temple and mosque, he is basically saying that we should all be open-minded and that all religions should warrant a look. The only reason to go to a Buddhist temple or Islamic mosque is if you haven't found the Lord yet... or, if you are interested to know the way they do things better, so you can speak to them more intelligently or clearly. Personally, I wouldn't visit one on a Sunday or during a time that I've committed to the Lord.

Underlying all his taunting is his irreverence to the Lord and reluctance to bow his knee and will to His Lordship. But God can change that, in His own time and plan. So, hang in there and keep representing Him well. It's not your job to change his heart. That's God's job. However, it is your job to help keep God in front of him, so he'll keep "rubbing shoulders" with the Lord and His people. If it's God's will, we just may see a miracle in his life one of these days.

Basically, at some point, he needs to realize that he isn't doing you a favor by going with you to church. You know what you believe to be true, but he doesn't know what he believes. So, you are actually doing him the favor.

I think that your best witness is to just keep growing in the Lord yourself. When he sees your life of integrity, honesty, character, love, and hope, I think it will rub off on him. Only the Lord can open up a person's eyes to His truth. We will pray that the Lord will grant you a lot of patience and understanding to look past his verbal challenges to a young person who is lost. It may well take many years.

One suggestion is to suggest to him for him to talk with me and ask me some questions he has on his mind. Tell him you'll be there too. Just a thought as I may be able to possibly knock down a barrier or two between him and God.

It's late. We can talk more later.

In Him,

Arthur and Sandra

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